THE LIMITLESS AND THE LIMITED

THE LIMITLESS AND THE LIMITED

THE OMNIPRES­ENT AND THE LOCALIZED

  

The ascension of Jesus of Nazareth was the final crisis in His great work. To omit it would be to omit that which is a necessary link between His resurrection from among the dead, and reappearance amid His disciples; and the coming of God the Holy Spirit on the day of Pente­cost. It is not easy to follow Him as He passes out of human sight. This difficulty is recognized logically in the very brevity of the Gospel narrative. Very little is said because little can be said which could be understood by those dwelling still within the limitations of the material, and having consciousness of the spiritual world only by faith. Still the positive fact is definitely stated, and following closely the lines laid down, we may humbly attempt their projection beyond the veil of time and sense.

It is almost pathetic that it is necessary to pause one moment to insist upon the actual historic fact of the ascension into the heavenly places of the Man of Nazareth. If the RESURRECTION be denied, then of course there is no room for ASCENSION. If on the other hand it be established, that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed rise from the dead, then it is equally certain that He ascended into heaven. No time need be taken in argument with such as believe in the authenticity of the New Testament account, and with those who question this, argument is useless. That there is an unconscious questioning of this fact of ascension is evident from the way in which reference is sometimes made to the Lord Jesus. It is by no means uncommon to hear persons speak of what He did or said “in the days of His Incarnation." Such a phrase, even when not used with such intention, does infer that the days of His Incarnation are over. This however is not so, any more than it is true that Abraham, Moses, and Elijah have ceased to be men. Indeed the presence of Jesus of Nazareth in heaven as a Man, is more complete than that of any other except Enoch (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5), Moses (Matt. 17:3; Jude 9), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). (See article TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER). All others wait the resurrection for the reception of their body. He in bodily form has passed into heaven. So also Enoch passed as a SIGN in the dim and distant century of the triumph over death that God would win in the Person of His Incarnate Son. So also Elijah passed, for a testimony in the midst of corruption, which was issuing in unbelief in immortality. Moses' body was brought out of the grave by Michael the archangel, for reunion with his spirit for the purpose of communion with the Man Jesus (Jude 9). This again was an act of God's faith in Christ, and though the devil disputed with the archangel his right to appropriate the benefits of redemption, until redemption were accomplished by this very act God declared the absolute accomplishment of redemption in the Divine economy, long before it had been wrought out into human history. (Jude 9) Jesus therefore through Whom, and through Whom alone eventually, men as such will be found in the heavens, ascended in bodily form to those heavens, being Himself as to actual victory the First-born from the dead.

The condescension of God to human form was not for a period merely. That humiliation was a process in the pathway, by which God would lift into eternal union with Himself all such that should be redeemed by the victory won through suffering. Forevermore in the Person of the Man of Nazareth, God is one with men. At this moment the Man of Nazareth, the Son of God, is at the right hand of the Father. Difficulties arising concerning these clear declarations as to the ascension of the Man of Nazareth must not be allowed to create disbelief in them. Any such process of discrediting what is hard to understand, issues finally in the abandonment of the whole Christian position and history. It may be objected for instance that if He be indeed localized as a Man, in heaven, how He can be present with His people on earth. In answer to that, it must be stated, that working in the inverse way, the same difficulty obtains in understanding His presence on the earth as a Man. In the very mystery of the Being of the God-man, as has been shown, THERE IS THE LIMITLESS AND THE LIMITED, THE OMNIPRESENT AND THE LOCALIZED. Just as He was here upon the earth in order that the grace of God might have its outshining in a Person, and yet while here, spoke of Himself as the "Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father"; (John 1:18) so today the Man Christ Jesus is in heaven, and through Him the glory of God is having its outshining in a Person, while He is yet in the deep and unfathomable reaches of His Being, the infinite and eternal I AM.

In considering the ascension first as the coming into heaven of God's perfect Man, there are three things to be noted,—

1^st, His perfection in the realization of the Di­vine purpose for man;

2^nd, His perfection in the ac­complishment of the Divine purpose of the redemption of ruined man;

3^rd, His investiture with a name.

FAKE NEWS

FAKE NEWS?

“them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," 1 Thess. 4:14

It has been stated that the early disciples were guilty of fraud, that they invented a account. Will this stand the test of one moment's consideration of the fact that for this particular account they endured almost untold suffering, being excommunicated, ostracized, and in thousands of cases put to death? It may be that in the history of the race, individual men have been found who, swept by some fanaticism, have been willing to die for fraud. Cases have not been wanting in which men have suffered and perished, in order that evil may reach the goal, and something dastardly be accomplished. But this is not a case of isolated individuals, but a whole company and society of men and women and children, ever increasing in number, all of them more or less having to suffer in those early centuries; and the central fact, for the declaration of which they endured all things, was this account of the resurrection, which, truthfully, it is announced they invented. Let the apostles be the first and most conspicuous illustration. All of them except one died violent deaths, and he was exiled to a lonely island.

The breaking out of persecution as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was based upon the fact that these men declared that the Man Who had been crucified to put an end to His teaching and influence, had been raised, and was alive. It is not within the compass of rational considera­tion to believe that men who so suffered, suffered for a account themselves had invented.

Again it has been said that Jesus never really died, but that He lost consciousness upon the Cross, and that being placed in a grave He recovered. How then it may be asked, did He escape from the tomb so carefully guarded by Roman soldiers, and from grave-clothes so marvelously wrapped, as those of Eastern burials were? Of course such a state­ment is to take away not only resurrection, but the death of the Cross, and all the value connected with it.

And yet His death is proven by the fact that it was carried out by Roman authority, and Roman soldiers, and is a matter of the world's history, as apart from the account of the Gospels. In the crucifixion of criminals the Romans were ever careful to be certain of death, and for ­this purpose broke the bones after a lapse of certain time. His bones were not broken for the simple reason that He was dead already. Before His body was granted to Joseph or Arimathea, the Roman governor made careful investigation concerning the actuality of death.

And yet one other argument may be referred to. It is asserted that the disciples saw certain visionary appear­ances after the crucifixion, and that they thought they saw Him. Under stress and strain of terrible excitement they imagined they had a vision of their lost Leader again alive. The statement has been made in this connection that they saw what they wanted to see, as people distraught often seem to do. The answer to such a statement is of the simplest. There need be no argument. They had no expectation of seeing Him again. No thought was further from their minds than that of His resurrection. As to the hypothesis of visionary appearances, it might have been considered if but one or two had testified. No less than ten distinct appearances are recorded and these not only to individuals, but to companies and crowds, first to the women, then to Peter, then to two men walking to Emmaus, then to ten apostles, and subsequently to eleven, yet later to seven men approaching the seashore. Yet again to the whole number of the apostles, and after­wards to five hundred brethren at once. Then to James, and finally to the little group gathered round Him when He ascended.

Is it conceivable that all these were deceived by vision­ary appearances, and were so deceived that whatever else their faults and failure in the coming years, there is abso­lutely no record of any one of them questioning the his­toric fact of the resurrection? Of course it may now be said that this is all upon the authority of the New Testa­ment and that is at once admitted. The authenticity of the Gospel narratives is not now under discussion, but is taken for granted. And therefore there may be added to the proofs already cited, the wonderful history of Saul of Tarsus, who declared through over thirty years of con­sistent Christian life and testimony, that the miraculous change wrought in his attitude towards Christ, and in the whole fiber of his character, was brought about by an actual vision of Jesus of Nazareth, risen and glorified. It has been said that the true account of what happened to Saul of Tarsus was that he had an epileptic seizure in a thunder-storm. So childish is such a statement, that the only answer possible to it, is a suggestion that if it be in­deed true, then men ought always to pray for a multiplica­tion of thunder-storms, and an epidemic of epilepsy.

And yet finally these outside proofs are not the highest to me. The ultimate proof is the Church of Jesus Christ. As has incidentally been seen, at the Cross the disciples were frightened, and scattered. By the way of resurrection these were gathered, and held in patient waiting, until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Whose coming created the new society, which consisted not merely in the gathering together of individuals, but their fusing into one mystic unity, and then followed the growth and influence of that Church in every successive century. Within its border today there is the deposit of the only regenerative Gospel that man has ever heard. The resurrection of Christ is proven today by the Church on earth, with its ordinances, its living ministry, its Gospel of grace, and the marvelous victories won in every age, and in every land by its toil in spite of its weakness and its worldliness. The Church of Christ is the highest CREDENTIAL OF CHRIST.

Turning from this subject of resurrection with the great glad exultant cry that Christ is risen there is in the cry the affirmation of His perfect victory, the declaration of the Divine seal set upon that victory, and the proclamation of a sure anchorage for the faith of men. The living risen Christ is the center of the Church's creed, the Creator of her character, and the inspiration of her conduct. His resurrection is the clearest note in her battle-song. It is the sweetest, strongest music amid all her sorrows. It speaks of personal salvation. It promises the life that has no ending, it declares to all bereaved souls that “them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," (1 Thess. 4:14) and therefore the light of His resurrection falls in radiant beauty upon the graves where rest the dust of the holy dead.

ESTABLISHED FACT

ESTABLISHED FACT

“What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things." “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." John 2:18-19

The remaining section of this article is that of a restatement of the arguments for the historic FACT of resurrection. Having considered how that FACT, if granted, is indeed the anchorage for faith, it now remains to repeat in briefest form, the lines of proof. And yet nothing can be of more importance. It is utterly false to declare that it is unimportant, whether the Man of Nazareth did actually rise from the dead. It is unfair and illogical, and outside the final possibility of reason's acceptance to affirm that the value of the resurrection remains if its FACT be denied. The idea that the matter of utmost importance is value, apart from FACT is absurd, because it is presupposing impossibility. The value has been created by the FACT. Had there been no FACT there could have been no value. Permanent values can only exist upon the bases of established FACTS. A value of perpetual force has never been created upon the basis of a so-called working hypothesis. Sooner or later the hypothesis will almost invariably cease to work, and when that happens, the value passes like the mirage of the desert. If the hypothesis is to continue, it will be because it is finally demonstrated as being BASED UPON FACT, and we need to never call this account a story of the RESURRECTION. Kids are read stories and most are made up.

The permanent value therefore is the outcome of ESTABLISHED FACT. All the working values of the Gospel of grace are founded upon THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

To follow this statement further: It is declared that the value is here, and we need take no time in arguing concerning the FACT. That may be abandoned seeing that the value is now at the use of men. This again is evidence of shortsightedness. Abandon the FACT, and the value will be lost. This may not be seen immediately, but in the process of years it will be seen. When the great rock foundations of our faith are reckoned of no account, the values that have accrued may seem to abide, but they will inevitably even if slowly, lose their transforming power.

The FACT of the resurrection has created the value of high life. Once deny the FACT, and its value will cease to grip, and regulate the consciences of men, and they will revert, sooner or later, to the bestial materialistic ideal of  life; which issues in such rottenness as that of Rome, and of Greece. To trifle with the foundations of God is to render the building insecure so the controlling factions take away prayer and the teaching of the Bible from the school systems. Now we must arm our teachers and secure the buildings and they are clueless as to the degradation of the minds of the children. The actuality of the resurrection of the Man Jesus is necessary to the permanent value of the Christian Gospel.

It is therefore absolutely necessary that the question be asked, did He rise? Take the apostolic formula of supposition, “If Christ be not risen," there are certain inevitable deductions will follow.

First, His teaching was false for He distinctly declared that He would rise again, and so faith's central claim was never realized, and all other claims are valueless. His one final sign was that of His own resurrection. “What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things." “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."(John 2:18-19) "We would see a sign from Thee." "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matt. 12:38-40) When He said these things, men did not understand them. But looking back at them, it is perfectly obvious that to the mind of the Master, the resurrection was the one indisputable seal of the Divinity of His mission. Yet again earnestly and solemnly it must be declared that if He did not rise, either He was Himself deceived, or He was intentionally a deceiver.

"If Christ be not risen," then to adopt the first supposition, He was mistaken, for He thought He would; or else, to adopt the second, if He never expected to rise, He deliberately attempted to deceive men, by promising them that He would.

And yet again, if He did not rise, His work was the direst failure. At the erection of the Cross, there was indeed to all human seeming, a final failure for Him. His own were against Him, His disciples abandoned Him, and they are seen scattering as fast as they knew how to go back to their fishing nets. They had had a dream of exquisite beauty in the days of their discipleship, but the whole thing had melted like the mirage of the desert. To affirm this in the face of the stupendous victories of Christ during twenty centuries is an absolute absurdity. If He did not rise, then the victories were not gained by Him, but by the men who were His followers, who reconstructed an idea out of a dismal failure, and made it the dominating and all-victorious force that it has been in human history.

And yet this cannot be, for they abandoned hope of the Christ, and scattered. There must have been something which re-gathered them, and reunited them. Not the Cross, but something other, for the Cross broke up the unity, and scattered the units. Not one of them waited to watch. They are seen drifting away, with the sadness of a great love for a lost Leader in their hearts, feeling that while He was true indeed to them, He was utterly mistaken, and that the only logical sequence of the Cross is that they shall go back to their fishing.

But to take the larger outlook, “If Christ be not risen," then the atoning value of His death cannot be maintained, and it is worthy of careful notice that the doctrine of Atonement always goes, where men call in question the FACT of the resurrection.

And yet again, “If Christ be not risen," then the world has no authoritative message concerning the life hereafter. If indeed He did not return, then has man no well-established hope of seeing again those faces loved long since and lost awhile. A man often says—thoughtlessly in all probability—that no one has ever come back to tell us concerning the beyond. That statement is absolutely correct if Christ be not risen from the dead. No one, however, whose faith is fastened upon the resurrection, can make that assertion. One has come back, and in His coming has brought life and immortality to light.

“If Christ be not risen” then there is no type of humanity, for all the perfections, which seem to be resident in Him, are spoiled by the revelation of His ignorance, or His attempt to impose upon the trust of man.

"If Christ be not risen" there is no new power at the disposal of man, and he is left alone to struggle, and altogether unavailingly, with the forces of evil.

If Christ did not rise, what then did happen? What was it that recalled that scattered group of frightened souls, and turned them into men and women of such marvelous force, that within one brief generation they had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, spoken to the known world, and undermined the corrupt Roman empire? How are these FACTS to be accounted for? It may at once be declared that every attempt to account for the victories of the Church apart from the resurrection is philosophically absurd, and historically without proof.

FAITH’S FIRM FOUNDATION

FAITH’S FIRM FOUNDATION

"He is not here, for He is risen, even as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay." Matt. 28:6

Let the facts as recorded in the Gospels be accepted as true. An appreciation of the value thereof will be dis­covered, by suggesting the questions arising in the mind of man, seeking redemption, as he stands outside the grave in which Christ has been laid to rest; and secondly, by notic­ing how such questions are perfectly answered as the grave is opened, and the Man of Nazareth comes forth.

Having reverently attempted to trace in order the work of Jesus in fulfillment of the mission of redemption, the mind is now fixed upon His GRAVE. Against the entrance of that tomb a STONE is laid. Upon that stone is the SEAL of the Roman governor. Within the tomb there lies the DEAD BODY of the Man of Nazareth. The questions aris­ing, are questions of reverence, and yet are questions honestly forced upon the mind. These are two, which may thus be simply stated.

1.      His life in its perfection was forever lived with the culminating fact of death upon His conscious­ness. This has been seen in the study of the approach to the Cross.

2.      In the process of the death, the declared inten­tion has been that of dealing with sin, and creating a new moral value to be placed at the disposal of such as are en­slaved by sin. Has the Man of Nazareth succeeded in this great work?

Closely allied is the second question. In looking for­ward to His death this Man has spoken of it as the path­way to something infinitely more. Having declared that He had come that men might have life, He moreover claimed that though He laid down His life, He would take it again, in order that it might be communicated to those who needed life. Is He equal to this declared purpose? With great reverence the mind has contemplated the passing of the King into the darkened way where lay the enemies of the race with the avowed purpose of gaining victory over them and accomplishing an exodus. IN THE DEATH GRAPPLE IN THE DARKNESS HAS HE WON, OR HAVE THEY? Is He merged beneath the swelling waters of the unfathomable sea, or are they? Standing before the sealed tomb of the Man of Nazareth, man asks in the deep consciousness of his heart's need and anguish whether there has been accomplished in the mystery of the Passion, that which will issue in the loosing of man from his sin? He asks moreover whether the infinite promises of individual life, which will enable him to overcome the things that have overcome him, can be fulfilled. A question concerning PARDON and a question concerning POWER surge upon the mind in the presence of the entombed Jesus.

The contemplation of His life and death have kindled within the heart a sense of love towards Him, and even though He have failed, He must forever hold His place for what He was, in the love of those who have beheld the vision. He meant well, He strove towards redemption, yea, so mightily, that none other can ever repeat the process. Has He FAILED, or has He SUCCEEDED? He is in the grave, and there is no answer so long as He abides there.

It would seem as though the very statement of these questions is all that is necessary to an unfolding of the infinite value of the glorious fact of His RESURRECTION. How precious it is to stand in imagination in the tender light of the first day of the week, in the company of the women who are first at the tomb, and to listen to the first uttering of the evangel of hope, as sounding from the empty grave, its music breaks upon the heart, "He is not here, for He is risen, even as He said. Come see the place where the Lord  lay." (Matt. 28:6) What tenderness is in the message, what glad exultant joy, and yet what a touch of quiet irony. And yet again, what gentle rebuke, "He is risen even as He said." These women and these apostles He had told again and yet again that He would rise, and yet they had come bringing spices to anoint Him dead. The angel re­vealed heaven's rebuke in the phrase “even as He said." And then what quiet majestic irony, all sin and all malice had united to put Him within the silent tomb. And now the angel quietly says “Behold the place where the Lord lay." The grave is there, but it is empty. He is not here, for He has risen superior to all the forces that united to silence and entomb Him. That resurrection is indeed the CENTER OF THE CENTER, and all the questions of the seeking heart are answered, in the radiant splendor of the light that streams from the vanquished grave.

THE EXODUS IS COMPLETE; THE FOES MET IN THE DARKNESS ARE MASTERED. The waters have not overwhelmed the King. In their unfathomable deeps, only the enemies have perished.

Almost with trembling, and yet reverently let this fact be stated from the other side. If the mighty work attempted had failed of accomplishment, the grave would have held Him. Unless He had vanquished sin, there could have been no resurrection. Unless He had still retained in the mystery of laying down His life the authority to take it again, there could have been no impartation of these values of His death, and the virtues of His life. His own perfect confidence in victory was declared when out of the darkness of the experience of the Cross He cried, “It is finished." (John 19:30) The absolute vindication of that cry is to be found in the resurrection, in which God answered declaring also “It is finished."

Here then indeed is FAITH'S FIRM FOUNDATION, its assured anchorage. By that empty grave man knows that sin is put away, AND THE INFINITE VALUE OF THE ATONEMENT IS AT HIS DIS­POSAL. By that grave man is assured of the fulfillment of the promises made, and he knows indeed that the life taken again is at his disposal. Glad unutterable peace possesses all the soul, as faith takes reasonable action upon the testimony RESURRECTION, and trusts without question of controversy, the accomplished work of the Redeemer.

RESURRECTION IS THE CENTER OF THE CENTER

RESURRECTION IS THE CENTER OF THE CENTER

“I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," 1 Cor. 2:2

The importance of the RESURRECTION may be gathered from the position its proclamation occupied in the preaching of the apostles. It was the first article in the creed they professed and proclaimed. When the apostles were surrounded with the high priests, and the whole senate, and the council of the children of Israel, Peter as the spokesman of the rest, in declaring the facts for which they stood, and of which they claimed to be witnesses, put the RESURRECTION in the forefront, (Acts 5:10) and this in spite of the fact that he knew it must run counter to the prejudices of that assem­bly, seeing that the high priest was himself a Sadducee, and therefore one who denied the resurrection of the body.

The words of Paul in writing his first letter to the Cor­inthians, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," (1 Cor. 2:2) have almost perpetually been used as serving to define the whole subject of his preaching. A reasonable and careful examination of the context will prove that this is a misinterpretation. “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” is not the whole burden of preaching, neither is it the final nor central fact thereof. It would be far more correct to say that the keynote of apostolic teaching was expressed by the same apostle when he wrote, “It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead." (Rom. 8:34) This is not to minimize the value of the preaching of Christ crucified, but if Christ crucified be all, then there is no value in preaching Christ crucified. It was His resurrection from among the dead that demonstrated the infinite value of the mystery of His death. When the apostle declared to the Christians in Corinth that he was determined not to know anything among them, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the reason lay in the fact of their carnality. All kinds of disorders had crept into the church, and the tone of the life of the members was carnal and not spiritual. It was necessary to hold their thinking in the realm of the Cross, for they had not learned this first lesson, and could not therefore be led into the deeper and fuller truth.

In his letter to the Romans Paul distinctly places the resurrection before the mind as the anchorage for faith unto salvation. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:9) And writing in the epistle to the Corinthians he makes a simple statement that at once reveals the true place of the resurrection in preach­ing and in faith. "If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that He raised up Christ: Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." (1 Cor. 15:14-17)

While the preaching and teaching of the apostles were constantly occupied with the fact of the Cross, as to its place and value in the economy of redemption, they never failed to direct attention to the resurrection as the central verity, demonstrating to man's intelligence, and communi­cating to his life, the value of the Cross.

The resurrection gave meaning to all that had preceded it. By it the Cross was proved to be more than a tragic death, and the life of Jesus infinitely more than an exam­ple. Upon the fact of the historic resurrection stands or falls the whole fabric of Christianity. Unless Jesus of Nazareth actually came back from the grave, then indeed have we followed “cunningly devised fables" (2 Pet. 1:16) and have been hopelessly deceived. This has been recognized by the very enemies of Christianity. It was Strauss who said that “the resurrection is the center of the center."

In contemplating the resurrection as the anchorage of faith, first let the historic fact be taken for granted and con­sidered as an anchorage; and secondly, let a question be instituted as to whether faith has actually the anchorage of the resurrection.

THE SECOND ADAM IS A SHEPHERD

THE SECOND ADAM IS A SHEPHERD

And yet this is but the dark background to a picture radiant with the colors of hope. God's rejection of imperfection is the act of Love. His refusal of all human attempts at renewal and reconstruction is the refusal of a great compassion. If the acceptance of Christ was the rejection of man, was also the acceptance of a new and living way through which rejected man might find his way back to God. If in the resurrection God accepted the perfect Man, He also accepted Him in that representative capacity, indicated by the fact of His wounding and His death. He raised in Him all those who commit to Him their whole life, in a deep sense of its direst needs and full confidence in His power to save and perfect. Not in loneliness did He rise, but in the possession of a life to be placed at the disposal of others. On the resurrection side of the grave Jesus stood as the Head of the new race, THE SECOND MAN, THE LAST ADAM. How often is this wording confused in quotation? Men speak of the last Man, and the second Adam. It may be objected that this is a matter of small significance, and yet it is not so. In His perfection He was the second Man. The first man failed, the second Man succeeded. That is the statement of a lonely fact. The first Adam was the head of a race, and in his failure the race was involved. The last Adam created the force of renewal even for the fallen, and became the Head of the new race, to whom that new force should be communicated. Not merely was He the SECOND ADAM, as though there might be a third. He was the last. Beyond Him, and all included in the communication of His life there is to be no new race.

Thus the resurrection is seen to be the Divine announcement of the evangel. According to the words of Jesus, on the Cross He laid down His life for the sheep, that is that they might receive it as their own. When God raised Him from the dead, He ratified that intention and declared it to be an established fact. The life laid down all received in resurrection, and all who receive that life are accepted, received by God. They are accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). From the resurrection morning now, God has been, and still is, receiving Christ; and the groundwork of the acceptance of any man with God is that there has been communicated to him THE LIFE OF CHRIST. There is no verdict upon fallen man so final in its declaration of his rejection, as is the risen Christ. There is no door of hope so radiant with light for the fallen people as this way into acceptance through the reception of the Christ.

               Oh the wondrous Shepherd of the sheep. The hireling cares not for the sheep, and flees because he is a hireling (John 10:13). The Shepherd came into conflict with the wolf, and by His dying overcame. The scattered frightened sheep, receiving the life liberated through the death of the Shepherd receive all the values and the virtues which God accepts, and thus in Christ are accepted of God.

THE DOOM OF IMPERFECTION

THE DOOM OF IMPERFECTION

All this is a startling and terrible fact in its first application to fallen and degraded humanity. By that solemn act of God in the midst of the history of the race, an act in which He accepted perfect humanity, He rejected all imperfection and forever made impossible the hope that any man should find acceptance with Him upon any other ground than that of a perfect realization of His purpose and His will. The real value of the resurrection will never be appreciated except as this fact is recognized. The risen perfect Man was the condemnation of the imperfect. In the midst of the age, in the sight of the entire universe, the Eternal God declares that He cannot and will not be satisfied with anything short of the fullest realization of His perfect purpose, a perfected mankind (Matt. 5:48). The resurrection of Jesus is the establishment in the midst of the human race of a Divine testimony concerning righteousness. In that magnificent moment of the emergence of Jesus from death into life, the Eternal God took hold upon perfection, and setting Him in the front of the entire race, declared that Jesus was His standard of human life. He raised Him from the dead, because of His perfect realization of all the purposes of His will. By that act the DOOM OF IMPERFECTION is sounded. If that be the standard of the acceptance of God, then all such as have failed are rejected.

The resurrection is more than God's acceptance of the perfect Man. It is His acceptance of Him as the Victor over evil, and the recognition of His right to claim the spoils of victory, that is to say, by resurrection God accepts the redemptive method of the Son. The Father declares that by the life laid down, a work has been done which is sufficient for the salvation of men. Yet carefully mark the sequence of this truth. By the resurrection of Jesus, God rejects and refuses all other methods of salvation. He declared in that stupendous act not only His rejection of imperfect man, but His rejection of every attempt imperfect man may make, to save or reinstate himself.

And yet when by resurrection God declared the victory of Jesus, He announced the defeat of all others in their conflict with sin. Standing in the search-light of the resurrection, man becomes more conscious of his helplessness than when standing in the shadow of the Cross. The risen One is Victor and Victor in virtue of the perfection of life, of the perfection of mediation. Man in his imperfection of life and his inability to work out a salvation of his own is declared to be vanquished, and unable himself to become master of the forces which have wrought his ruin.

It is because the resurrection has not been properly ap­preciated as the message of God, which is the severest con­demnation of sinning man that men have still imagined that apart from the Passion and passing of Jesus of Nazareth, it may be possible for them to be accepted of God.

Gazing into the darkness of the grave which Jesus has left, man should recognize the utter hopelessness of his condition, and the utter foolishness of attempting to please God. When the Eternal raised Jesus from the grave, and took Him to Himself, He by that act hurled the whole race to destruc­tion. Think of the resurrection for a single moment, not merely with reference to the truths now considered, but as an illustration of them in the fact of history. No man saw Him rise. The very disciples were denied the vision. It may be urged that the weakness of their faith was the reason, of their failure in this respect. And yet in that very fact is evident the act of God. As in the Cross there was mani­fest the element of lawlessness, crucifying the Son, and the element of Divine counsel and foreknowledge so also in the resurrection there is manifest man's failure in his absence and God's rejection of man, in that he was not permitted to see the stupendous glory of the acceptance of the perfect One but the angels in heaven saw His arrival.

The act of God in the resurrection of Jesus, was one characterized by marvelous majesty, and overwhelming power. In describing this, Paul speaks in language which almost seems to be redundant, and yet is surely necessary to give some indication of the stupendous fact. He writes: "That working of the strength of His might." (Eph. 1:19) The might of God, the strength of the might of God, the working of the strength of the might of God. Simply to read this is to feel the irresistible throb of omnipotence. In the quietness of that first day of the week, when the first shafts of  light were gleaming on the eastern sky, the disciples being absent and the enemies, as represented by the soldiers being rendered blind  by the glory of the angelic splendor, God-raised Him.

Notice what this meant with regard to the powers that had been against Him. The PRIESTS had labored to en­compass His death, and had been successful. They had done their worst, and God lifted Him out of the death to which they had condemned Him, and by this act forever rejected them. The WORLD POWERS had united in religious hatred, and cultured indifference, and material power to cast Him out; and God placed Him over the whole of them, crowning Him at the center of all authority, and by that act rejected FALSE RELIGION, imperfect culture, and merely mate­rial power. This is no mere dream, though for twenty centuries the PRIEST has fought for his position in the world. He has been defeated again and again, and must ultimately be defeated, and always in the power of the PRIESTHOOD OF THE RISEN CHRIST.

So also have FALSE RELIGIONS, the religions of externalities striven for the mastery, only to be superseded by the relig­ion of the Christ.

FALSE CULTURE has repeatedly attempted, with self-satisfied cynicism, to treat with indifference the Christ of God, only to find that He takes hold upon all the domain of true culture, and rules ultimately over it.

And moreover, the KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH in their pride have set themselves against the Lord and His Anointed, only to find that the King of kings and the Lord of lords defeats their purpose, spoils their program, and paralyzes their power. All the forces of the world were placed below Him in resurrection. In the act of the crucifixion of the Christ, man turned his back upon God. In the fact of His resurrection God turned His back upon man. The risen Christ was the One with Whom God entered into covenant to the exclusion of all others.

The resurrection has no message to men who are attempting in the energy of their own will to please God, except that of declaring that by the fact of His pleasure in the perfect One, He cannot be pleased with imperfection in any degree. And if anyone preaches another gospel than Christ let them by anathema and see if the Father accepts their gospel method (Gal. 1:8). The answer is clear; He will not resurrect any other. The resurrection attests to every successive age that in God's acceptance of the way of salvation provided by Christ, He forever refuses to lend a listening ear to any who shall attempt that which is impossible, the working out of salvation in the energy, of a depraved and degraded nature.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER

It has been seen through the whole progress of this study how that again and again in different ways, GOD GAVE TESTIMONY to the sacred nature of the mission of Christ, and to the satisfaction of the Eternal heart with the outworking of the Divine purpose in history, in the Person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. At His advent when earth gave Him no welcome, and there were no evidences of preparation, remarkable signs were granted to the sons of men, the shining of the star, the singing of the angels, the voices of prophecy, the moving of the underworld of evil, the coming of the wise men from afar. During the days of His public ministry there was the three times the repeated breaking of the silence of the heavens in the speech approval, at the baptism, at the transfiguration, and at the coming of the Greeks. Moreover through all those days there were the miracles by which God approved Him among men. The awful and supernatural manifestations at the crucifixion were of the same nature; the earthquake, the opening of graves, the darkening of the sun, the rend­ing of the temple veil.

Indeed the presence of Jesus of Nazareth in heaven as a Man, is more complete than that of any other except Enoch, Moses, and Elijah. All others wait the resurrection for the reception of their body. The resurrection is the central and ultimate declaration of this fact. It is fit to notice that associated with it was the resurrection of some of the saints. He was the First-fruit, for coming forth He led others with Him. The account of the rending of rocks, and opening of graves which were among the supernatural signs attending the crucifixion very clearly declares that though the graves were opened, the saints did not arise until the day of resurrection. That opening of the tombs was in itself a wonderful thing, but none could move from them until He had risen. One other resurrection is that of the Antichrist in Rev. 13:1-3 from a supposed head wound. But this is a fake version of the true resurrection and 3 fold attestation of the Son's work by the Fathers own words and testimony - not so attested with this resurrection.

He must lead the way forth. Yet the very graves seem to feel upon them the touch of the hand of the Master of life, and the earth yawned to yield to Him the conquest He was winning. The Divine seal did not end with the resurrection. His ascension was by the act of God, Who exalted Him. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was God's great outpouring of the new force of redemption, and was consequential upon His satisfaction with the work of His Son.

And yet again in the glory of that advent which is to be, the Divine approval will be manifested before all creation.

The value of the resurrection as a Divine act is threefold.

1^st it is God's attestation of the perfection of the life of the Man Jesus.

2^nd it is God's attestation of the perfection of the mediation of the Savior Jesus.

3^rd it is God's attestation of the perfection of the victory of the King Jesus. 

Upon all the virtue of His life, and the value of His death, and the victory of His conflict God set the seal in the sight of heaven and earth and hell when raising Him from the dead He fulfilled the confident assertion of the old time Psalmist concerning Him, that He did not leave His soul unto Hades nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption.

RESURRECTION THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

RESURRECTION THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

The ultimate value of the resurrection lies in the fact that it was a Divine act, by which God gave confirmation, to His perfect satisfaction with the work of Christ. It is most important to remember that the deepest question of all for the heart of man is not whether he is satisfied, but whether God is satisfied.

In the contemplation of the matchless beauty of the life of Jesus, the heart of man may have found perfect satis­faction. Standing on the margin of the mystery of His Desire, the deepest consciousness of the life may have been that of the sufficiency of the work wrought for per­sonal redemption. And yet so perpetually has the mind of man been at fault, that not in its own satisfaction can it find its deepest rest. Therefore it is that the question of greatest moment is as to whether God has found in the life and death of His Son, that which has accomplished His purpose, and will issue, in blessing to men and the glory of His name.

The answer to all this questioning is found in the RESUR­RECTION. In the passage which perhaps is the most remarkable of all the utterances of Christ concerning His Passion, He declares "Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father." (John 10:17-18)

This is so strange a statement as to baffle all attempts at explanation. Its correctness, however, is demonstrated by the fact that He did lay down His life, and that He did take it again. Carefully note, He claims His right to do this was received from His Father. Thus the whole work committed to Jesus by the Father was that of laying down through death His perfect life for the making of Atone­ment and right to lay hold again upon that life for its communication to others, as the context shows.

The proof then that the work of the Cross was perfect lies in the fact that He not only laid down His life, but that He took it again, thus carrying out the Divine authority to its utmost limit.

In writing to the Ephesians the apostle in praying for them that they "may know the exceeding great­ness of His power" describes it as the power "which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places." (Eph. 1:18-20)

Thus it is evident that He, Jesus, laid hold upon His own life, taking it again, but He did this by the authority of His Father, and so it is remarkably true, as Paul declares, that His resurrection was by the act of God. There is no contradiction in these two statements, but rather the revelation of that perfect harmony of action between the Father and the Son, which characterized the whole work of Christ.

The RESURRECTION then is the Divine seal upon the work of Jesus, as perfectly meeting the purpose of God. In ex­amining this, notice

1^st - how the resurrection was the culminating act, marking the perfect commendation of God;

2^nd - how the resurrection was the final act, marking God's rejection of man; and

3^rd - how the resurrection was therefore the Divine ratification of the new and living way, by which rejected man could be accepted.

THE DEVILS WORK DESTROYED

THE DEVILS WORK DESTROYED

Now follows a victory, if possible more re­markable. At least it may be said to be of even pro­founder interest to man, for in it lies the great pathway of his own escape from the guilt and power of sin. Let the examination be careful. "Therefore My heart was glad, and My tongue rejoiced." (Acts 2:26) Why? Because having be­held the Lord always before His face, there had been per­fect victory over the possibility of the origination of sin, and because having recognized always the presence of Jehovah at His right hand, He had not been moved. Therefore His heart was glad, glad in the victories won, and in the strength of righteousness resulting. Again the question comes, why was He glad concerning the victory? Was it simply because of the triumph? Surely that, and surely more. That double triumph creates the strength for more triumphs to come and the next a huge one to win. His heart, His tongue, His flesh rejoice because "Thou wilt not leave My soul unto Hades, Neither wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption." It is evident that this victorious Person intends passing into Hades. He is going to death and through death into Sheol. But because of the first victories, it is now certain that death and Hades cannot hold Him. God must raise Him, and bring Him back into life. Herein lies the ex­planation of the triumphant notes. I rejoice. My heart is glad, My tongue rejoices, My flesh rests in hope. The great Person, Who in experience fulfilled this song of the past, declares that because He has set the Lord before His face, because, having the Lord at His right hand He has not been moved, when He descends into Hades, God can­not abandon Him. He must bring Him forth again and the final note of triumph issuing upon this double victory achieved, and third victory assured, is expressed in the words:

"Thou madest known unto Me the ways of life;

Thou shalt make Me full of gladness with Thy countenance." (Acts 2:28)

Here again the question forces itself upon the mind: Why did this Holy One pass into Hades? The answer is already in our possession from the study of the former crisis in the life and mission of the Christ. As the Lamb of God He had made Himself responsible for the sin of the world and the issue of that responsibility was death, ESSENTIAL DEATH, the separation of the spirit from God, and death expressed in the separation of the spirit from the body. To that issue the perfect One Who had assumed the responsibility of all human guilt, passed by the way of the Cross. In the deep and unfathomable mystery of the Cross, His Spirit was separated from God, and that Spirit separated also from the body, passed down into Hades. Think reverently, and in solemn stillness of this fact in God's universe. One Who has obtained a double victory over sin, as a possibility within the very nature of the subservient life, and over sin as a suggestion made by a foe without, has taken upon Himself the responsibility of the sin of a race and in those solemn hours between the passing of the Spirit of Christ on the Cross, and the resurrection morning, the holy body of the Man lies in the tomb. His Spirit has passed into hell, the place of lost spirits. Now hear His words. “Thou wilt not leave My soul unto Hades." In the mystery of the Cross, all the penalty of sin has been kept. In the place of fire there is no pain for the Holy One, Who has exhausted all its fierceness in the terrible experience of His Passion. In His body has He accepted man's sin, and that work having been as He said finished the corruption which means the disintegration of the body, cannot touch Him. “Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption."

In that great expression of triumph which Peter quoted, there is evident the twofold nature of the perfect Man, and in both realms there is THE CRY OF VICTORY. His soul cannot be left in Hades. The body cannot see corruption. Here then is the THIRD FACT OF THE VICTORY. The penalty of death, in its first and deep meaning, was due to sin. He took sin, and because there was NO PLACE FOR DEATH IN HIS LIFE (HIS DOUBLE VICTORY FROM WITHIN AND FROM WITHOUT), by dying He exhausted the penalty due to someone else. Thus in the moral realm His death has created a new value, a value that He does not require for Himself, but that He holds for others. Here then is evident the reason of Peter's confident affirmation. “It was impossible that He should be holden of it." “It” was the issue of sin. "He” is Victor over sin as to the possibility of origination as a suggestion coming from without, as a terrible fact for which He has made Himself responsible. Having thus gained a victory over every conceivable form of sin, cover­ing the whole territory of its domain, death cannot hold Him.

The resurrection therefore is the unanswerable argument for the accomplishment by Jesus Christ, of God's purpose of DESTROYING THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL. There are infinite possibilities of application. Let it only be said that it is from the empty grave that the true song of hope has sounded. Every worker with God is conscious of the presence of evil in the world. Let that consciousness always be held in connection with the glorious fact that over all, CHRIST IS ABSOLUTE MASTER. The Church is not fighting a conflict, the issue of which is uncertain. THE VICTORY HAS BEEN WON, and therefore it must be won. The battle often thickens, and presses upon the weary soldiers of the King, but these are but conflicts of administration. There is no question left as to the final issue. Sometimes the process may seem tedious, and the waiting long, and yet this is but false seeming. The movements of God must never be measured by the slowness of a human life, or by the inadequacy of an earthly almanac. Standing by that risen Man of Nazareth, each one putting trust in Him may say with reverence and holy fear and yet with certainty and absolute boldness, My heart is glad, my tongue rejoices, my flesh also shall dwell in hope. HE HAS WON HIS VICTORIES, AND EVIL IS DOOMED. Therefore, at last the victory of souls trusting in Him must also be won. The glories of the resurrection demonstrate forever the absolute and final victory of the Man of Nazareth over every form and force of evil.

THE FATHER BETWEEN

THE FATHER BETWEEN

The next phase of the victory is marked by the words, "For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved." (Acts 2:25) Here is something distinct from that already considered. The first fact may be stated by the declaration, “I have not moved.” But here it is, “I should not be moved.” That is to say, not merely that there has been no movement from the place of submission to the Divine will simply on the basis of  PERSONAL CHOICE, but also that there has been no movement from that position in response to suggestion or TEMPTATION FROM WITHOUT. It is here that man (Adam and all afterward) fell. The fall of the angels was that of ceasing to set the Lord before their face, acting upon their OWN INITIATIVE. The fall of man consisted in his allowing himself to be moved from his loyalty to God, in response to a suggestion coming to him FROM WITHOUT himself. Man did not originate sin. He fell under the power of it by yielding to an attack made upon him FROM WITHOUT. In this realm also Jesus was victorious. Having held the citadel of HIS WILL against the possi­bilities of His subservient position, He held it moreover, against all attacks of the enemy FROM WITHOUT; a twofold holding. Recogniz­ing the presence of God Who was at His right hand as a wall of defense, He always acted by remaining in such posi­tion, so that God was between Him and every attack of the enemy (not so with Adam as well as ourselves); and thus the second phase of His victory over sin is that of REMAINING UNMOVED, in spite of every attack of the foe to change His relationship to God, by moving Him from the sphere of perfect trust.

ORIGINATING SIN HALTED

ORIGINATING SIN HALTED

     HIS VICTORY OVER THE POSSIBILITY OF ORIGINATING EVIL is suggested by the first statement, “I beheld the Lord always before My face." Jesus was, in some respects, an entirely new creation. He indeed stood in the same relation to God as that occupied by the angels, who were created prior to man. In emptying Himself of the form of God, it is first stated that He took upon Him the form of a Servant. That is a fact even deeper than that He was made in the likeness of men. In this stoop of the Eternal Son, He passed, as has been seen in a previous article, from the place of Sovereignty to the place of submission. In that very fact, there is the possibility of a new beginning of sin. The fall of Satan can only be comprehended by recognizing that as to his original creation he was made a servant of God. All the POWERS OF HIS BEING were to act under the direction of the Eternal. There was to be no choice of the WILL except under the guiding principle of the will of God. He was created with his face towards God and the secret of his fulfillment of the highest possibilities of his marvelous being lie in his setting the Lord always before his face. His fall consisted in the fact, to continue the figure, that he set before his face another purpose, another reason, and thus turned his back upon Jehovah. The new Servant of God in all the facts of His being was able to say, “I have set Jehovah always before My face." When divesting Himself of the form of Deity, He took the form of a Serv­ant, and entered upon the life of SUBJECTIVITY. He stood in a place where it was within the possibility of His nature to act apart from the governmental direction of Jehovah. This He never did. Jude the apostle declares in what lay the sin of the angels. “Angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation." (Jude 6) Sin was abounding with all the created creatures, except the animals. Let it be carefully noted that their leaving their proper habitation was not the punishment of their sin, but the sin itself. They refused to remain in the habitation marked out for them by the law of God. The punishment of their sin lies in its sequence, that they are cast forth from their habitation by their own act; they are reserved in the bonds or limitations of their false position “under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Their own PRINCIPALITY, that is, the realm over which God had intended them to rule, they did not keep, because they left their habitation. They turned their back upon Jehovah. Here, so far as has been revealed, is the primal origin of sin in the universe of God. Instead of exercising the magnificent endowment of WILL under the governing principle of the will of God, they exercised it under another domination, that namely of their own desire, and then turning their backs upon God they left their proper habitation, their first habita­tion.

Herein by contrast is manifested the first fact in the marvelous victory of  Jesus. He, the new Servant of God kept His principality by abiding in His true habitation. He never exercised will under the constraint of desire, but always setting Jehovah before His face, He lived in un­ceasing and glad response to all the volition of that will of infinite wisdom, of perfect holiness, and unfathomable love. The first phase of the victory of Jesus was therefore that of victory over the possibility of sinning, by the pros­titution of will power, without suggestion made from without.

THREEFOLD VICTORY INTRODUCTION

THREEFOLD VICTORY INTRODUCTION

In considering the crisis of the resurrection, arguments for the actual historical fact will be taken in the last articles. First assuming the fact, its value as a demonstration of Christ's perfect victory will be considered.

Referring again to Peter's discourse on the day of Pente­cost, a most remarkable epitome of Christian doctrine, there will be found an argument concerning the resurrection which is briefly stated in the words "It was not possible that He should be holden of it," and is defended by quo­tation from ancient Scripture, full of value and of suggest­iveness. It will be well to read in full, Peter's statement, and the Psalm from which it is quoted. Having set the Cross in relation to the sin of man, and the grace of God, the apostle continued,

"Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. For David saith concerning Him,

"I beheld the Lord always before My face;

For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved; Therefore My heart was glad, and My tongue rejoiced; Moreover My flesh also shall dwell in hope:

Because Thou wilt not leave My soul unto Hades,

Neither wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou madest known unto Me the ways of life;

Thou shalt make Me full of gladness with Thy countenance." (Acts 2:24-28).

The actual words of the Psalm quoted, as they appear in the Old Testament are as follows,

“I have set Jehovah always before Me:

Because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall dwell in safety.

For Thou wilt not leave My soul to Sheol;

Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show Me the path of life:

In Thy presence is fullness of joy;

In Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." (Psa. 16:8-11)

Perhaps the true values of the simple statement of the apostle may be gathered, by laying emphasis upon the pronoun having reference to Jesus, and the final one referring to death. “It was not possible that HE should be holden of it." In this way the statement is seen to be an inspiring and magnificent one, in which the apostle, conscious of the vic­tory Jesus had won in life and death, treats almost with contempt the last enemy.

"He" that is "Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs," the One Who "being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of law less men did crucify and slay." This same Person, God "raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." (Acts 2:22-24) The unifying fact in the whole discourse is the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, and having set in order the movements of that wonderful life, the apostle now declares that God raised Him because He was bound to raise Him. Not to have done so, if this may be reverently supposed, would have been to have violated every principle of law. The necessities of the Divine nature demanded it. The eternal order required it. If death had held Him, the issue must have been disorder, and the defeat of all the purposes of God.

So far this is a bare statement. It remains now to con­sider why “it was not possible that He should be holden of it." This is revealed in the apostle's use of the lan­guage of the Psalmist. Peter distinctly declared that what David wrote, he wrote concerning Christ, and was careful by subsequent statements to show that the language of the Psalmist could not have been fulfilled by the experience of the one who wrote it (David); but its perfect fulfillment was in the Person and victory of Jesus of Nazareth.

Turning to the Psalm, let it be carefully noted that its gladness is caused by the fact of resurrection, and that resurrection is the necessary outcome of a threefold fact in the character and conduct of the One so rejoicing. These facts may thus be tabulated. First, “I beheld the Lord always before My face." Second, “For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved." Third, "There­fore My heart was glad, and My tongue rejoiced; Moreover My flesh also shall dwell in hope: Because Thou wilt not leave My soul unto Hades, Neither wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption." The issue of this three­fold assertion is "Thou made known unto Me the ways of life; Thou shalt make Me full of gladness with Thy countenance." (Acts 2:25-28)

The distinction between the three facts, issuing in resur­rection may not be clear, and yet on close examination will be found that they indicate THE THREEFOLD VICTORY OF CHRIST, which captured the whole ground of death's domain, and made necessary the resurrection. This threefold vic­tory may be stated, and then considered as, first, victory over the possibility of originating evil; second, victory over evil as suggested from without; and third, victory over evil as responsibility assumed.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT THE CROSS

FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT THE CROSS

Luke alone refers to the fact of the presence of His ac­quaintance at the Cross. The reference is undoubtedly to HIS FAMILY AND HIS NEIGHBORS FROM NAZARETH, and their presence may be suggestive of a deepened interest. In all probability His own brothers, the sons of Mary, were among the number. It would seem as though James, the author of the epistle, who was undoubtedly the Lord's own brother, did not come into true sympathy with Him during the life of Jesus. May it not be that in the presence of that Cross and through the events following, he was led to a knowledge of the truth concerning the Master? In the attitude of these family and acquaintance of Jesus, and if the foregoing supposition concerning His own brothers be correct, what a revelation there is for all time that familiarity may be most distant.

DISCIPLESHIP was represented at the Cross especially by John. He seems to have been the only one who came very near the place of his Master's suffering, and his near­ness issued in the sacred charge of Mary, which was com­mitted to him by his dying Lord.

Looking back at that whole scene, how truly remarkable it is. The first impression is that of a Roman scaffold sur­rounded by a promiscuous mob, while one frail, weak Man finds relief from overwhelming agony in the act of death. But look again, and it is seen to be the place of a throne. The throne is occupied by One Who is at once King and Judge, finding verdicts and pronouncing sentences, and all in the neighborhood of the Cross are judged by the Cross. His dying is the condemnation of evil in every form. His dying is the pathway of deliverance for those who at the Cross turn from the things the Cross condemns, to put their trust in Him. Such He leads by the way of the Cross to the broad life that stretches away on the other side.

THE CROWD WHO LOST THEIR SHEPHERD

THE CROWD WHO LOST THEIR SHEPHERD

Look for one moment upon the multitudes around, the GREAT SHEPHERD LESS CROWD. That was Christ's picturing of them, sheep having no shepherd. How perplexed, how disappointed many of them must have been that day. For three years they had followed a Leader, a Deliverer, fol­lowed Him foolishly, it is true, not from high motive, and never able thoroughly to appreciate Him. Moved by the signs of His power, and drawn by the tenderness of His compassion, they have followed still, though imperfectly and now the end of it is His crucifixion. They had hoped that “it was He Who should redeem Israel," (Luke 24:21) and now He is nailed to the Roman, cursed, tree. Jesus had spoken of them as being without a shepherd, and many of them had come to hope that perhaps He was their Shepherd. Oh, could they but see, He was indeed the good Shepherd, and in the mystery of that awful Cross, He was laying down His life for them. Soon they will come back, by tens, by hundreds, and by thousands. Never tell me that Christ's ministry was a failure. It has some­times been said that He only gathered about one hundred and twenty disciples. But let it never be forgotten that the results of the preaching of Jesus were gathered upon the day of Pentecost, and gathered wherever those men afterwards proclaimed His death and resurrection. In the days of His public ministry He had done what He is now doing in the present day. He gathered a few in associations with Himself, as He is now calling out the Church to Himself; but He prepared thousands of others to be gathered in, in the fullness of time, as He is now preparing the whole world for the preaching of the Gospel that shall succeed the present dispensation and economy; the day of great tribulation. And of those multitudes around the Cross there can be no doubt that soon many came to know Him as the good Shepherd Who had laid down His life for the sheep.